Kisangani

Kisangani (formerly Stanleyville), city in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, capital of Orientale Province, on the River Congo below Stanley Falls. The city is served by several railways, has its own airport, and is a terminus for steamers from Kinshasa. Farming and cattle raising are the chief occupations of the surrounding region. Kisangani is a transhipment and small-scale manufacturing centre, and is the site of an agricultural institute and a campus of the University of Kinshasa. A station was established on a small island near the site of the present-day city by the Anglo-American explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley in 1882. Sixteen years later, Stanleyville was made a city; it was renamed Kisangani in 1966. Population 417,517 (1994 estimate).